The Abnormality of Free Will
by Slayerbelle
Summary: The sequel to "Destinies." Updated and completed. Set before "Fool For Love," Buffy starts to find out the kind of forces out to help her -- and hurt Dawn.
1. Welcome To Sunnydale

Disclaimer:   
These characters don't belong to me, but to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all related entities with a rightful claim to them. Aurora is a character I have created myself, placed in their universe.  
  
  
Sequel to "Destinies". I'm writing it to stand alone, but if you need the backstory consult the guide below...  
  
Part 1: "Protection"   
Part 2: "Destinies"  
Part 3 is this fic, "The Abnormality of Free Will"  
Part 4: "Heartbeats"  
  
  
"The Abnormality of Free Will" is set in Buffy season 5, right after "Family" and before "Fool For Love". All the season's events remain intact.   
  
Send feedback please (because that would really help, especially when it's a story like this that isn't finished yet) to slayerbelle@go.com  
  
  
  
The Abnormality of Free Will  
  
  
by Slayerbelle  
  
  
  
  
Chapter 1  
"Welcome to Sunnydale"  
  
  
  
  
Haunting music.  
  
It was playing inside the red room, an old song that might have been romantic back in the 1950s, but now it was just creepy.  
  
Aurora Halley was wearing the same white dress she always wore, but tonight it was windy and she was feeling cold.   
  
"Is it always this cold here?" she asked, the wind whipping her hair in every direction.  
  
The girl standing in front of her shrugged. "I don't know what you're talking about," Buffy Summers said.  
  
They stood before each other, wearing the same white dress, hair almost the same length, in the middle of what seemed to be a storm inside a doorless red room.  
  
She'd been in the room many times before, only it was never this cold. And there weren't this many people.  
  
There was a girl, younger than she, standing to her right. And a man she didn't recognize, standing to her left. The four of them completed a circle in the middle of the windy red room.  
  
As the music kept playing.  
  
Aurora looked down and saw that she had a silver blade in her hand.  
  
"You're supposed to use it," Buffy said.  
  
"It's too crowded in here," Aurora said. She took the blade and struck at the man next to her, sticking the blade into his heart.  
  
====  
  
Maybe she shouldn't have told Giles the whole story. It gave him that worried face.  
  
Buffy Summers paused in front of the Sunnydale Saint Catherine West Cemetery, wondering whether she should climb over the gate or just break it open. She'd climb over it, but she didn't plan her slaying outfit appropriately and would be in for much discomfort.  
  
She braced her hand on the gate, ready to kick it in, a little surprised that it swung open freely.  
  
Well. Some things need not be done the difficult way, really.  
  
The name was written down on a piece of paper somewhere... oh yeah. Back pocket. Grace Gianelli. She actually had had French class with the girl, at least one semester of freshman year in UC Sunnydale. She missed class more often than Buffy did. Sad, because she seemed really smart. Apparently she was sick of cancer, and had met her untimely end finding that immortal embrace she sought.  
  
She found the fresh grave next to an imposing angel statue. Poor angel had one broken wing.   
  
*As so many of them do,* Buffy thought.  
  
It had to be almost midnight, and she had to get back home. Her mom was away on business for the night and she couldn't get anyone to babysit Dawn on such short notice... so, well, the short of it was that there was a very pissed off British guy heaving tea in her kitchen. Concerned, willing to help, but very pissed off.  
  
The ground rumbled with the familiar stirring underneath. Buffy sighed, reached into her pocket and poised herself above the grave, ready to strike.  
  
The thin, frail-looking, but very strong hand burst from the earth. The air immediately stank of soil, and that strange sanitized smell Buffy associated with morgues.   
  
*How can vamps stand that? First thing they probably do after they bust out is shower.*  
  
Unless, of course, she got there first.  
  
The vamp formerly known as Grace poked her head out, game face on. She was still disoriented, hungry, probably still getting used to the whole undead thing. Her hands were cut and bleeding and her hair was full of soil, but Buffy recognized her. And felt sad.  
  
Grace had gone the way of Ford, and in desperation must have latched on to vampirism as her last and most viable choice. It had been three years, and the circumstances were different, but Buffy couldn't afford to allow herself to understand her.   
  
She told Ford that there was always a better choice. It wasn't always a good one, but when you had so little left you don't go the way that makes you lose even more. She held a friend to that standard, and she was going to hold this acquaintance to it as well.  
  
That, and she made it quick for Ford. Grace would not have it any longer.   
  
As soon as Grace pushed up to her waist out of her grave, Buffy stepped in and dusted her.  
  
"Au revoir," she said, trying her best to sound as if she didn't care. Sometimes it felt like it wasn't fair, but they chose the path that led to her stake. There were just some things she was meant to do.  
  
====  
  
"Is she asleep?" Buffy said, hanging her coat up next to the tweed jacket and gesturing in the general direction of Dawn's bedroom.  
  
Rupert Giles was sitting on the couch, helping himself to some television, which Buffy found immediately amusing. He sat up straight and turned it off promptly. "Buffy! Yes, Dawn is in bed. And I... I should have brought adequate reading material, really. All you have in your bookshelves are Dr. Seuss and Harry Potter."  
  
"There's also a healthy subscription to Good Housekeeping," Buffy retorted. "But you probably have every issue. And hidden behind that is a thank you, Giles."  
  
"Did you get the vampire?"  
  
She nodded, flopping down on the other end of the sofa with an exhausted sigh. "Yeah. All dust, no fanfare. I'm guessing nothing was amiss tonight?"  
  
"Nothing exciting, that's certain."  
  
But of course nothing was wrong. Had the Bitch Monster From Hell chosen that night to take Dawn, Buffy would be going home to a big pile of nothing. Giles was no match against the demon, and she told him as much. She put him in a compromising situation by telling him as much as she knew but... well, she didn't really know what else to do.  
  
She had drawn the line, though, on telling Xander, Willow and the rest. The Blond Permed Demon was very strong, and had tortured the monk to get what she wanted. Buffy had barely gotten away with her life, and it was only due to the demon making the building fall on herself... which Buffy guessed was not going to be a recurring event. She wasn't going to put anyone in that position until she found out more.  
  
The strength of the demon, though, was something she probably shouldn't have disclosed to Giles. He was worried, and felt burdened by having sole backup duty on something that worried her that much. Not that he wasn't capable, they both knew they could probably do it by themselves if they had enough breaks... it was just the uncertainty of what they were up against.  
  
And he brought it up again, before he left. "Have you discovered anything new about the demon who tortured the monk, Buffy?"  
  
She shook her head. "I haven't seen her again since that night. I'll probably beat up Willy at the bar tomorrow, he's sure to hear something about her. She seemed the flamboyant type."  
  
"I've tried referencing my older texts about this Key, but there are still a lot more volumes to go through. Do you remember anything specific about the monk who told you this, or the demon?"  
  
"Just that the monk had an accent. Italian, I think. Something European. And the demon... well, she was blond. She looked my age. Kind of like a cheerleader from hell."  
  
Giles paused at the door, and took his time putting on his jacket. It was one of those contemplative silences. Only he wasn't thinking, he was more of trying to phrase things in his head. "Buffy, we can't keep doing this."  
  
*Play dumb. It's easier.* "Can't keep doing what?"  
  
"Taking turns watching her. This is obviously a matter of some urgency, and you patrolling and me researching is eventually not going to be enough."  
  
She shook her head, still determined. "We can't tell anyone else. We can't risk that."  
  
"Buffy, unless we get a miracle soon, we're not going to be able to keep this up. I won't be able to protect her if you're not here, and if we don't find out more about this demon, you won't be able to protect Dawn either."  
  
"One day, one day at a time," Buffy said, but inside the pressure squeezed at her heart again. It freaked her out, not knowing how to go about this too. They didn't have a plan. They had the beginnings of a plan, and that wasn't good enough. "I'll beat up Willy tomorrow, and then we just go from there. OK?"  
  
Dawn screamed.  
  
It was coming from her bedroom, upstairs, and it was shrill and strong, definitely from the diaphragm. Buffy had heard that scream before in her implanted memories of her fake sister, but hearing it now, for real, gave her a chill. She was going to have nightmares hearing that scream, and variations of it. And she knew she was going to have to hear more of it in the future, if she didn't do this right.  
  
She and Giles were up the stairs as quickly as they could without tripping on each other. Could it be vampires? It was around 1 am, pretty much vamp lunch hour, complete disinvite on the entire house notwithstanding.  
  
She got to the room in seconds, and found Dawn, standing in the middle of the room. Seemingly safe.  
  
"What?" Buffy demanded.  
  
Dawn was clothed in her pink pajamas, visibly shaken. She pointed to the open window. "I'm fine. They -- they're outside."  
  
As if to punctuate that statement, a crash was heard from the backyard. Buffy ran to Dawn's window and poked her head outside.   
  
In the middle of the night the only light available was the occasional street lamp, and Buffy could barely make out the features of the two figures fighting it out all over her mother's chrysanthemum flower pots. One was definitely vampire, and the other was a girl.  
  
Who, from the looks of it, was going to need rescuing in another minute.  
  
Buffy leaped from Dawn's open window and landed on her feet. She was on the vamp in a second, knocking him off his stranglehold on the girl. She grabbed herself a handful of his coat and threw him toward the nearest wall.  
  
He was big. Heavy. Old. (He looked like he was vamped at middle age.) He rolled off broken pots and turned to her, game face on.  
  
"You don't know what you're doing," he sneered, in a thick European accent.  
  
And then he leaped over the fence to the neighbor's house and disappeared.  
  
Buffy watched him go, and realized that she hadn't even thrown a punch. "Well, vampire in Slayer's house calling the kettle black."   
  
*Unless of course, he wasn't talking to me.*  
  
She turned to look behind her, and the girl wasn't there.  
  
====  
  
Buffy went back into the house the normal way, through the door. Giles had apparently given Dawn milk to calm her down. That Dawn was actually drinking it was a revelation, as she had sworn off milk as a beverage since she turned twelve.  
  
Which never really happened, but Buffy knew she had to stop reminding herself that, because she'd go crazy.  
  
Giles looked up, surprised to see her back so soon.   
  
"I didn't get to dust him," she said. "But enough about me, maybe the young lady with the milk here should start explaining."  
  
Dawn looked up at her with those big eyes, still trembling. "I didn't do anything, I swear. I was sleeping, and I heard him at the window."  
  
"He was at the window?"  
  
"Yes, but, but I knew he couldn't get in, and then he started to... to chant something in this other language, and the window started to glow, and he -- he got his hand in --"  
  
Countering the disinvitation spell. Buffy quickly shot Giles a look. She caught his eye, and could see him making mental notes already.   
  
Dawn paused to sip from her glass. "And then I thought he was totally going to get me, right there in my room, and then all of a sudden this big blast of light happened, and he was just gone."  
  
"Gone?"  
  
"I didn't see it, just a huge big burst of light, and then he was gone. Or at least, he was downstairs, and he was fighting with a girl... I thought it was you."  
  
Buffy shook her head. "Not me. And she disappeared."  
  
Giles cleared his throat. "This girl, she attacked the vampire who was trying to enter the house."  
  
"I didn't get to see much of her," Buffy admitted. "I thought she was the usual rescuee type. I went for the vamp first. By the time he scampered off, she was gone too."  
  
"You didn't get to see her?"  
  
"I think we should worry more about the vamp," Buffy said. "He looked old, and foreign. European. And we might want to have Willow and Tara come over and redo the disinvite mojo, because he seems to have a backdoor entry to what we've got going now."  
  
She put her hand on Dawn's shoulder. Her sister was distressed, but only because she was new to this kind of horror.  
  
*They gave you to me. They know I won't let anything hurt you.*  
  
"Dawn, if you promise not to snore, you want to stay with me in my room tonight?" she said.  
  
That was more gracious that she'd ever been to Dawn her entire life. But things were different now.  
  
====  
  
That was going to swell in the morning.  
  
Aurora Halley slowly unbuttoned her shirt. Motel mirrors were tacky, but they didn't lie, and she did indeed have that horrible scratch down her back. Apparently the vampire didn't put Buffy's life in considerable danger, so Aurora's protective powers didn't kick in. She attacked the vampire with all the strength of, well, someone who didn't have any, and her body felt sore all over.  
  
*Wish I'd gotten a better look at the vamp. But it's not like he'll be frightened by my threatening payback.*  
  
She was also disoriented. She was getting the dizzy spells lately. Being in Buffy's backyard made her notice it again for some reason, which was weird because she'd been there before many times and it was fine.  
  
Aurora sighed, tried to lie down on her back because comfort would only come that way. She contemplated going to the hospital, but once she hit the bed she didn't want to get up.  
  
Staring up at the ceiling, she mentally calculated the money in her wallet and decided she had enough to make a decent call to Cordelia in LA. Beyond that, and she was going to have to get a day job. Her night one wasn't paying much at all.  
  
Sore fingers crawled up onto the nightstand to grab the motel cordless phone. Sore fingers started dialing.  
  
A familiar voice made her feel all better, almost. "Angel Investigations, we help the hopeless."  
  
"Help me, I'm a lost cause."  
  
The voice perked up. "Aurora?" Cordelia squealed a little, and what felt like homesickness pinched at Aurora. "You said you were going to call as soon as you got there! We were kind of worried."  
  
"I'm sorry, I just... I had to settle in and stuff. Do the patrolling thing. And I don't have a job yet, so all this calling is a luxury."  
  
"So how's Sunnydale?"  
  
"Weird."  
  
"Well hello, Hellmouth."  
  
"No, I mean... at first I thought I was just feeling out of it. I thought coming back here would feel... right. Like I was going back home."  
  
Cordelia audibly sighed. "You can never go back home, really."  
  
"It's not the same around here." Aurora sighed much the same way, and tried to put the strangeness in the back of her head. Which was easy, because she had the back pain to focus on. Welcome back to Sunnydale. "So how's Angel?"  
  
"You promised."  
  
"What?" she replied defensively.  
  
"I'll be honest with you and you promised not to try and help."  
  
She did promise not to help. No matter what was wrong, because Cordelia wanted to be able to tell her things without her feeling compelled to go back to LA. This, of course, got her suspicious. "Is something wrong?"  
  
"He's going through a weird phase right now. You'll never guess."  
  
"Help me out here."  
  
"Darla."  
  
Aurora coughed, and the pain shot up her back at the effort. "What?"  
  
"Darla."  
  
"He dusted her. Years ago. I was there." Well, she was there but he didn't know it.  
  
"And that's why I said you'd never guess. Our good old buddies at Wolfram and Hart have been very generous with the pain lately."  
  
She knew that, and felt it as well. It was kind of a reflex. For eight years she took up the cause of helping Angel with the pain, and she was given all the power to protect him, to keep him alive (or undead) until the time the Powers needed him most.   
  
Now, of course, she had the lady from Sunnydale to take care of.  
  
"So how is he?" she asked again.   
  
"He went to some shaman guy last week, to help him out with his issues." Cordelia shared. "Of course the guy ended up trying to kill him, but that's Angel for you. And Aurora, I think I saw Angel's new protector chick."  
  
"What? You saw her?"  
  
"Yeah, I think I did. She was hanging around outside the Hyperion, and then I saw her again at Caritas last week. Not very stealthy, that girl. It's going to be easy for the Kalderash to find her, I mean if I already did..."  
  
Not stealthy indeed. Aurora shook her head. OK, so in the beginning she slipped up a bit too, and a few people saw her. But that was what cloaking spells were for. Angel's protectors were not treated well by the Kalderash family -- naturally they didn't want anyone messing with their curse, and Angel's protectors were hunted and punished.  
  
That's no way to treat members of your own family, even if they disagreed with your beliefs, but she didn't question her place in the world.  
  
If this next girl was as clumsy as Cordelia was saying, she wasn't going to last.  
  
But it wasn't Aurora's problem, anymore. It was still hard to separate herself from it, though. Eight years of her life, should an adjustment period be too much to ask?  
  
"Cordelia, I'm going to give you a spell to help--"  
  
"Aurora, no." Cordelia interrupted her, and firmly.  
  
"What? Cordy, it's just a little spell. You can do it. You did such a great job with the last one--"  
  
"Aurora, stop it." Cordelia meant business, and Aurora knew it wasn't going to go past her. "I know you love him and you mean well, but you can't help him anymore."  
  
She knew this. She knew all of it.  
  
Cordelia noticed the silence, but of course she went ahead anyway. "This is as much for him as it is for you, Aurora. I know if you help him he'll get through this, and I kind of think he has to get through this alone. I mean, he has this new protector girl and everything, but I don't think she's as good at it as you are."  
  
A compliment, but it didn't make her feel better.  
  
"Besides," Cordelia continued, "You don't get the visions for Angel now. You get them for Buffy. And believe me, as long as they're pain-free you should just count your blessings."  
  
She lost her way in the tail end of her eight years protecting Angel. In the last few months, she had actually gone against the rules and met him, told him about what she was doing and what she had done for him. It scared her, because she realized she cared more about the man than the cause.   
  
It scared her more that she was still feeling that way now, a little. Still caring for Angel when she was supposed to be protecting Buffy.  
  
Enough about her. "How's your head, Cordy?" she asked.  
  
"I've upped the pain meds. It's getting pretty bad."  
  
"Oh God. I'm sorry. Do they know?"  
  
"No, if I told them they'd be all puppy-dog-eyed and I hate that. You're lucky to have them without the pain."  
  
"I know." Aurora's visions came to her in her sleep, as symbolic dreams always set inside a red room with no doors or windows. It freaked her out in the beginning, but she had gotten used to it.  
  
Cordelia was right. She had a job to do, and shouldn't fixate on what she had lost on the way. No matter how empty she was feeling now.  
  
"Wesley's got a girlfriend!" Cordelia always did shift gears quickly, and Aurora had to laugh at that.  
  
Trying to ignore the pain, she settled into a normal discussion about Wesley, his new girlfriend, and more pleasant stuff about LA. Maybe she was just lonely. She wasn't giving Sunnydale enough of a chance. She did live here three years, maybe she just needed to settle down again.  
  
Which reminded her.  
  
"Cordelia," she asked, "Did you know that Buffy had a sister?"  
  
====  
  
Ten minutes, and that was it. She had a test in the morning.   
  
Willow was usually so good about the helping her study. She'd be patrolling until midnight, and when she got back to the dorm room she'd find Willow's very helpful notes next to a cup of coffee, and a bar of chocolate. She'd try to do something sweet for Willow too, even though Willow said her passing the test was enough reward. The girl was so sweet.  
  
Of course, Buffy had just moved out of the dorm room and back home, so she had her French notes tucked in her jacket. She tried sneaking in a few pages in between vamps, but that really wasn't helping.  
  
She heard something undead scurrying in the bushes just past the crypt she was sitting on. Her alert mode switched on.   
  
No fanfare again, she promised herself. *Giles would have a fit if I'm late.*  
  
Her mom was home tonight with Dawn, but Buffy felt guilty about leaving them to patrol, so she asked Giles to stay for dinner.   
  
*I swear, we're running out of excuses to have him over.*  
  
He was being so gentlemanly about it, though.  
  
Buffy leapt over a smaller series of tombstones and landed on her feet. The scurrying was soft and to her left. Man, those funky crystals Giles had been using for her training actually did improve her focus. She could tell that it was a vampire. She could imagine its build already, and the direction in which it was running.  
  
She bolted forty-five degrees East and burst through a bush.  
  
Too fast, too quick for her own good.  
  
In a split second she was on the other side, barreling into vamp dust, and into the woman who had apparently just dusted him.  
  
Both girls gasped their silent screams as they fell to the ground. Buffy lost grasp of her stake, and so did the other girl, and they rolled on the grass separately before Buffy managed to halt the process by hitting a tombstone. She quickly regained her footing, snatched a stake from her boot, and took aim.  
  
"Stop!" Aurora Halley exclaimed, raising her unarmed hands in the air.  
  
Buffy recognized her from the house. From several nights ago. The girl who...  
  
"You were in my house. You... and the vampire. Who are you?" she demanded.  
  
A look of mild panic crossed Aurora's poker face. She contemplated quickly doing a spell, because she could do that, because she was supposed to.  
  
Buffy shouldn't know she was there. As Angel wasn't supposed to know. Them knowing just complicated things.  
  
The Slayer didn't take kindly to the silence, and in a second was in Aurora's face, the stake perilously close to puncturing her skin. "Who are you?" she demanded.  
  
Aurora closed her eyes. And made a choice.  
  
"Buffy Summers," she said. "My name is Aurora Halley and I've been sent to protect you."  
  
  
  
TO BE CONTINUED 


	2. Trust Her With Your Life

Disclaimers in Chapter 1  
  
Send feedback please to slayerbelle@go.com  
  
  
  
The Abnormality of Free Will  
  
by Slayerbelle  
  
  
  
  
Chapter 2  
"Trust Her With Your Life"  
  
  
The number was written here somewhere.  
  
Buffy didn't memorize it. Maybe she should, it would come handy in times like this.  
  
Five rings so far. Maybe she shouldn't be calling so late.  
  
"Angel Investigations, we help the hopeless. Are you hopeless? We can help you."  
  
*Cordelia, thank God.* Mature as they were being about their past, she wasn't ready to have awkward small talk with Angel yet.  
  
"Cordelia," she said. "It's Buffy."  
  
"Buffy Summers," Cordelia masked a yawn. "Angel's out, or unavailable, or whatever. He's not here."  
  
"No, I didn't want to talk to him," But Buffy was a little miffed that Cordelia jumped to that conclusion. "I wanted to talk to you."  
  
"Me? To what do I owe this really late pleasure?"  
  
"Sorry if I woke you up. I wasn't sure you'd be at work this late."  
  
"Oh, Wesley had this research party earlier. We're all having the time of our lives. What did you want to talk to me about?"  
  
"Aurora Halley?"  
  
Cordelia burst out laughing. "Oh God. You know her already? Tell her she's lost her touch."  
  
"You know her."  
  
"Of course I know her." Cordelia noticed that Buffy wasn't laughing, and she sobered up a bit. "What -- is something wrong? Is she OK?"  
  
"She's fine. In fact, she's downstairs in my living room."  
  
Cordelia heaved a very audible sigh of relief. "Oh, good. Great. Why did you call?"  
  
"I just, well, I found out about her tonight, what she does. What she did for Angel. And... I wanted to check if she was telling the truth."  
  
"Yes, she's gotten that divine whatever to protect you and she's given all this magic witch power to help keep you and herself alive, and all that. I know the drill. I've seen it in action. Why would you even doubt her, Buffy?"  
  
"It's just... a lot of things are tense here now. I want to be sure she can be trusted."  
  
"For what it's worth, Buffy, I trust Aurora with my life. I'd trust her with yours too. What do you mean you don't know if she can be trusted? Someone devotes her life and powers to protecting you when she gets nothing out of it..."  
  
Buffy checked the door to make sure no one was within earshot. "She's just got awful timing, Cordelia. It's just... there's something going on here, and I want to be sure she's not connected..."  
  
Cordelia gasped. "She didn't tell you."  
  
"Didn't tell me what?"  
  
"She didn't tell you why she left LA."  
  
"What are you talking about?"  
  
"Buffy, whatever big bad you think she might be in cahoots with, forget it. I don't think she traveled back to Sunnyhell because she enjoys your company and the local cuisine." Cordelia spoke emphatically, and Buffy sensed just how much she liked the girl. "She turned down a lucrative career in evil with Wolfram and Hart for this divine mission, and she didn't leave LA by choice."  
  
*Wolfram and Hart... Wolfram and Hart... *  
  
"That's the law firm, right?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"You and Aurora are friends?"  
  
"We love her. Wesley and I, we do."  
  
Buffy nodded. *And Angel?* "That's good to know. I just wanted to be sure she was exactly who she said she was."  
  
"She's that and more, Buffy."  
  
*Wolfram and Hart!* Buffy remembered now why the name was familiar.   
  
She remembered the photograph.  
  
"Why did she leave LA, Cordelia?" Buffy asked.  
  
Cordelia cleared her throat. "I think you'd better let her tell you that."  
  
====  
  
Aurora and Giles were in the living room, alone together for almost twenty minutes already, but Buffy had to find something first.  
  
The impromptu phone call to LA was necessary because she had to make a choice that evening.   
  
After Aurora introduced herself the first time at the cemetery, Buffy didn't believe her. Well, she did in a way, believed her enough to take her back to the Summers house where Giles would make both heads *and* tails of her story.  
  
Assigned by the Powers That Be to protect her. And what a story it was.  
  
Buffy's instant reaction was, "Hello, Slayer!" She even said that aloud, and Aurora only concurred. Apparently she didn't know what she was supposed to be protecting Buffy from, only that she was sent to Sunnydale to do just that.  
  
And then Buffy remembered the unbelievably strong demon who was roaming around town somewhere, looking for Dawn, a demon she didn't recognize or know how to defeat, and she softened up on the Slayer's Protector idea.  
  
Maybe she really did need some supernatural help.  
  
And then, of course, the strangest thing happened. As she let Aurora into her home, the girl started shaking and acting really loopy. She kept saying things about something being wrong with the house, that she was seeing things that wasn't there, that their family pictures were flashing. A glass of water later and she was fine.  
  
She said it was a spell.  
  
A quick conference with Giles and Buffy deduced that Aurora could see the spell cast on them, the way Buffy saw through it herself when she was in a trance. Which means she knew about Dawn.  
  
Which means they had to let her in on the plan, whatever it was. It bothered her, that she would have to tell this stranger before telling Willow or Xander, or even Riley. At least she wouldn't have to worry about this girl's safety -- apparently her powers protected her life. And at least Cordelia really seemed to trust her.  
  
"If people would just stop it with the mind control," she muttered as she lifted a sweater off her mail pile.  
  
First there was the sister she never knew she never had. Now there was this girl, claiming she was in Sunnydale the whole time Angel was here, and she knew about everything that happened to Buffy that time, knew everyone in town. Now that the truth was being shown to her, she didn't know what to believe.  
  
There was something she needed to clear with Aurora, though.  
  
Nearing a month ago, she got a visit from a young man. A lawyer, very good looking. He brought her an envelope bearing the Wolfram and Hart name. She might have flirted with him a little, she was human after all, and then she noticed that he shook her hand using his left.  
  
Because his right hand was a prosthetic.  
  
Inside the envelope was an eight by ten photograph, black and white, of Angel kissing a girl.  
  
Buffy found the incriminating photograph in her unorganized pile of mail.  
  
The girl was Aurora, she could tell now.  
  
====  
  
She dropped the photograph in the middle of the living room coffee table.  
  
Aurora paled. If it was possible for her entire face to drain of blood in that moment, that was probably what had happened.  
  
Giles, meanwhile, looked upon it with interest. "May... may I?" he said, taking the photograph by the corner, looking at it closely. "Amazing, vampire with no reflection can be photographed."  
  
"How did you get this?" Aurora said, her voice barely a whisper.  
  
"Lawyer delivered it here himself. Cute. Plastic hand."  
  
"Lindsey McDonald," Aurora said softly. "The bastard."  
  
"That's probably not a term of endearment," Giles said, still observing the picture.  
  
"Actually it kind of is." A smile came to Aurora's face. Lindsey, she had talked to him before she left LA. He was doing his job, and was good at it. She couldn't blame him, not really.  
  
"Giles, when you've finished," Buffy said pointedly. "I just want to ask what was that, and why was it brought to my home."  
  
Aurora was having difficulty breathing. Lindsey couldn't really be working on her now, and still. This wasn't about Angel now. This was of absolutely no use to him.  
  
*Unless it's to get me crawling back to Wolfram and Hart. This is a stupid plan.*  
  
"I think they intended this to expose me as... I don't know what." Aurora said.  
  
"So this picture is real. And it's you." Buffy took a seat next to Giles and faced the girl.  
  
"Yes, it's me. And it's real. But... it's not as tabloid gossip as it looks."  
  
"And I'm not--" Buffy raised her hands defensively. "Hey, am currently in happy, mostly stable relationship. This isn't some kind of thing with Angel. But let's admit how weird this is."  
  
Giles, almost hesitantly, put down the picture. "This does seem to intend to discredit you with Buffy. You did claim that you were helping Angel anonymously all these years."  
  
"And I was, until recently." Aurora really did not want to have to tell this story. The scars had literally only started to heal. "This picture got me fired from that."  
  
"Because you weren't supposed to show yourself to Angel," Giles said, catching on quickly from the recap earlier.  
  
Aurora nodded. "Yes. Getting removed from the cause meant they took the power away from me as well. Of course, I still had the angry Kalderash to deal with, and they already knew me because Wolfram and Hart kindly gave them a copy of that. Angel offered to protect me, but we found out quickly that he can't."  
  
She paused, and an awkward silence fell over the three of them.  
  
Giles cleared his throat and pushed it. "What do you mean he can't?"   
  
Buffy met Aurora's eyes, and as the girl lifted her hand to pull back her hair, a strange feeling punched the Slayer in her gut. This wasn't from funky crystal training, it was from intuition. She recognized that look of healing pain in Aurora's eyes.  
  
She recognized the scar on Aurora's neck, almost identical to her own.   
  
Giles slowly leaned closer. The scars had only healed recently.  
  
Buffy sucked in her breath. "Your punishment if you get caught... they turn you."  
  
She nodded. "Yes."  
  
"And they somehow got Angel to do it. Magic. Or something."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"He didn't succeed."  
  
"I don't know why he didn't. It was a miracle. Wesley and Cordelia didn't get me in time. Something intervened, I know that much."  
  
"He must... he must feel awful about this."  
  
"Yes he does. But that's not why I left. I left because it could happen again and again until the Kalderash get it right." Aurora was thankful she didn't have to give the details of that night, but was still unsettled by having to remember. "Fortunately I got assigned to you through a vision, and by coming here and taking it, I get my powers back."  
  
"So you're able to defend yourself from the Kalderash," Giles continued.  
  
"Well, only if they really want to harm me. Otherwise I'm just normal human being."  
  
Buffy could hear little bits of history creeping into this Cliff Notes version. Wesley and Cordelia. Angel. She could get now why Cordelia said Aurora didn't leave by choice.  
  
She loved it there. She loved them. But the only way she could stay alive was to leave, hence the Sunnydale move.  
  
"Aurora," she said. "I have to tell you something about Dawn."  
  
====  
  
Aurora tried to remember if the haunting music only came to her in Sunnydale.  
  
In LA the visions didn't have music. Or at least, not loud and creepy like the one she was hearing now.  
  
Inside the red room she found herself in the circle again.  
  
Buffy. Her. The man. And Dawn.  
  
She knew it was Dawn now. She just met Dawn a few hours ago.  
  
She wanted to tell Buffy that she recognized the man, but Buffy didn't seem to know he was around. She was just looking at Aurora.  
  
"It's not going to be me," she said.  
  
"What?"  
  
"It's not going to be me."  
  
The man turned to Aurora and spoke. "Gli universi sanguinano ed il sole brillerà nessuno più."  
  
Buffy pointed to Aurora's hand. "You have to use that."  
  
====  
  
Giles was expecting her at three pm at the Magic Box. He saw her come in a few minutes before that. And slowly.  
  
He was at the register, taking over for Anya who took a break by bringing a sandwich over to Xander's construction site. He saw the girl come in, but he didn't approach her first. In the moments it took her to cross the store and get to the round table, he noticed a slight limp in her step.  
  
Their eyes met, and he smiled. He offered her a seat, and she took it cautiously.  
  
Her back was either sore, or wounded.  
  
"I'll get us some tea, and then we can start working," he said.  
  
It was a relief, actually being able to work on this new evil. He and Buffy were being spread thin by taking turns protecting Dawn and looking for clues. Having Aurora in on the loop helped ease his burden somewhat, but he was also intrigued by what he could learn from her. He wanted to study the kind of magic she was dealing with.   
  
Aurora, as he found out an hour later, was very much willing to share.   
  
"... borrowing spells," she was saying.  
  
Giles was making notes. "Borrowing spells?"  
  
"The power isn't mine. I mean, I've learned to do simple spells, some incantations over time. But any significant power I can do isn't mine."  
  
Interesting. "You're a channel for the power then. Do you know where it comes from?"  
  
"The incantation calls Alana, who from what I understand is the first of Angel's protectors. She was a Kalderash of course, very powerful witch."  
  
"She was the first to go against the family curse."  
  
"Yes. I'm still unclear of the details, but at some point in time she decided to help Angel. Keep him alive for him to reach what they called The Dark Times."  
  
"And Alana, she did this how long ago?"  
  
Aurora frowned. "I really don't know too much about the history of what I do. They kept a lot from me. I think it only started after World War 2, or around that time."  
  
"Is she still alive?"  
  
"I seriously doubt that."  
  
An awkward moment passed, and Giles quickly proceeded to something else. "What kind of... of magic have you been able to do through these borrowing spells?"  
  
She smiled. "Wild and wacky stuff. Instantly freezing water to ice. Bursting through doors. Bolts of lighting. Fire. Levitating stuff. I even healed a staked vampire once. Anything that is necessary at the time."  
  
"As long as you protect Angel."  
  
"Or myself, yes."  
  
This was promising. Buffy was having difficulty with the new demon because it was particularly strong. Here they had a witch who was harnessing power that was beyond strength...   
  
Aurora tilted her head to one side, and it was as if she had read his mind. "I can't will it to work, Mr. Giles."  
  
"You're speaking of your powers?"  
  
"Yes. I know Buffy needs help protecting Dawn, but I can't will the power to just come out. I don't decide this. It works only on two conditions: to protect Buffy's life, or to save my own. I can't really be of help to Dawn like this."  
  
"But we can channel it, can't we? This is important, Aurora, and we need to have every option open to us."  
  
She paused to think. "I know it can be channeled, but not through me. Once Cordelia channeled it through herself, and it worked very well. But it still weighed heavily on the power of Alana deciding for Cordelia to have it. All we can do is ask permission."  
  
"Duly noted, and thank you. But... you say you can't will your powers. And yet you get yourself into situations where you fight to protect Buffy. The other time Dawn."  
  
"You noticed the limp."  
  
"And I think your back is hurt."  
  
"I think I cut myself on a flower pot in Buffy's backyard."  
  
"Aurora, you can't go into the line of fire unprepared. I think being around Angel and Sunnydale as long as you have, you'd know this very well."  
  
"I can't help it," she said softly.  
  
Giles put down his pen and looked at her. Of course he understood. "It doesn't help, just watching, does it."  
  
"I know you got fired from the Council for getting involved. I know I shouldn't. But sometimes you're just so close to it, that it would be wrong not to."  
  
It was a selflessness he had to admire. He could already imagine Angel's reaction to it. Angel would demand she stop protecting him, that he wasn't worth it. But she continued to do so anyway, because it was what she was supposed to do.  
  
Aurora cleared her throat, and the moment was over. "Did you get all you needed to know? I'm sorry, a lot of details weren't really revealed to me until recently. Like the part about the Kalderash turning the protectors they catch into vampires. Now they didn't tell me that."  
  
Bitterness. And just a hint of pain.  
  
"It's cruel of your family not to warn you."  
  
"I know it is. But I was thinking... maybe they had to hide it. Would I have said yes, had I known at what cost? I believe in what I do, but when you're sixteen years old you wouldn't necessarily choose this if you knew what you were getting into."  
  
"You're a remarkable young lady, Aurora."  
  
She shook her head. "I'm not. You wanted me to help you with research?"  
  
The gears shifted quickly, and he turned the page on his notebook and decided not to pry. Aurora told him about her vision that night, and the Italian phrase the man in her dream said to her. He marveled how she remembered every word.  
  
"The universe bleeds and the sun shall shine no more," he said.  
  
"That's what it means?"  
  
"Yes. It sounds ominous. You are certain this is what he said to you?"  
  
"I just remember it. I'm supposed to."  
  
"That's very convenient.," he observed. "I should take a look at the Italian texts that I have... this could be a cult, intent on bringing about the end of the world."  
  
She laughed. "That's not very original."  
  
Indeed. Giles remembered several volumes pertaining to old Italian cults and religious orders, and soon enough he and Aurora were poring over the pages at the table.   
  
"Bloody hell," he exclaimed, minutes later.  
  
"What?"  
  
"I've found it, kind of." He opened the book to the page in question and showed it to Aurora. "That verse you mentioned, it's the first line of an important text from an order of Italian monks... the *Il Custode Della Chiave*. Keeper of The Key."  
  
"You found it there. In that book."  
  
"Well, yes."  
  
Sunnydale actually did have everything, she didn't know why people complained about this town. "How convenient. What else does it say?"  
  
====  
  
Later on, Willow figured out that it was a set up.  
  
It wasn't that Buffy *never* treated her out to the Espresso Pump, it was just rare. And while Willow didn't want to think there was an ulterior motive behind it, she knew there were reasons.  
  
"You enjoying that?" Buffy said, a little too eagerly, pointing to Willow's iced mocca caramel with whipped cream.  
  
She took a sip. "Immensely. Mocca goodness."  
  
"Sorry about that earlier."  
  
"I just don't think that was very nice of Giles, is all." Willow said, only half joking.  
  
After classes at UC Sunnydale that day, she decided to stop by the Magic Box, in case Giles needed help with something. She was noticing how stressed he was recently, staying up late researching something he wouldn't let her help with.   
  
Now that was really heroic of him, but she hoped he wasn't deciding again behind her back what kind of magic was too much for her.   
  
She saw him researching in the Magic Box today with a girl she didn't recognize. He introduced her as Aurora, who was apparently some kind of witch, and they were talking hush hush about witch stuff.  
  
Now that was just silly.   
  
"...so I'm all like, I can help, Giles. And he says no, he and Aurora are fine, and I should just go on with my day." Willow was saying, shaking her head. "I don't know why he's always protecting me about the magic thing. I think I've proven pretty much that I can do this. I'm not a baby."  
  
Buffy nodded. "Oh, you really aren't. Did you, did you meet Aurora?"  
  
"Well, a little introduction and all. That she's a witch and apparently she meets Giles's research buddy, let's-talk-about-magic standards." OK, a little bitterness there.   
  
"You might see her around a bit too. Patrolling. With me."  
  
"What?" Willow felt her face fall a little, and she hated how disappointed she must have looked. "What's going on? When did she get into the Scooby Gang? Was there an initiation I missed, or something?"  
  
"It's not... I mean, it was sudden. She was sent here to help me. Just trust me with this, Will, and I don't really know what else to tell you."  
  
"Sent here by whom? To help you with what?"  
  
"Higher powers, and she doesn't know what. It's just, she just has to help me. So she'll be around."  
  
"That doesn't sound suspicious to you?" Willow was primarily pissed, but getting a little concerned now. "People don't just show up on a Slayer's doorstep and say they want to help."  
  
"Just... she won't be in the way. Trust me with this."  
  
She did, she trusted Buffy with her life, more times than she could count. But what could Buffy and Giles be needing that she couldn't help them with?  
  
"Don't think that it's you," Buffy quickly said.  
  
"Well, there's something brewing and you're not letting me help." Willow said, and regretted how it made her sound like a kid. But she felt out of the loop, and fine, she had her own stuff too and not everything was about the Scooby Gang... but it would have been good of them to ask. She sipped the mocca, apparently designated the mocca of forgiveness, and tried to get her composure back. "OK, so I get it. There's stuff you and Giles have to do. Just... if it's really important we should be in on this together."  
  
"It's no big. Really. I mean, she's just here to help. No problem."  
  
"Let's just forget it then. So what are you up to tonight?"  
  
"Dinner date with Riley. And then patrolling."  
  
"Must be Tuesday."  
  
====  
  
Now, Buffy had never really done magic herself, but she didn't realize that it was an actual force that one could feel.  
  
She and Aurora were side by side on the ground, pinned down by two vamps who had apparently just risen and were getting cemetery dirt all over their clothes and face and hair. Aurora was shouting, first in surprise, and then later in pain. Buffy was preoccupied herself, and couldn't do a thing but roll her stake Aurora's way.   
  
Aurora's vampire opened his mouth and tilted her neck for a better angle. As he went in for the bite, Buffy felt it.  
  
A soft hum, and then almost like a burst of static electricity. Aurora let out a soft gasp, and then she released her left arm from the vamp's grip, groped her side for the stake. The next move was too fast for Buffy to see, but apparently Aurora got her leg up and tossed the vampire off her, resulting in vamp somersaulting. And then a moment later she was on her feet, trading punches with the creature.  
  
*I've got to get me one of those,* Buffy thought, shaking her head as she did almost the same thing with her normal Slayer strength. As soon as she got back up on her feet, she reached into her boot for the other stake, and her own attacker was dusted.  
  
She found Aurora out of breath but successful a few headstones away.  
  
"You were saying?" Buffy said.  
  
Aurora dusted off her hands a bit. "Oh yeah... they called themselves Keepers of the Key. Italian monks, very versed in magic. They had to be, if they were actually hiding this thing, whatever it is. It apparently doesn't have form or shape, but they turned it into..."  
  
"Dawn," Buffy sighed, absently sticking the pointy end of her stake over and over on the nearby tree. "Did it say what the Key was? Why they were hiding it?"  
  
"No, just a lot of references to power."  
  
"That's not helpful. I mean, a key opens something, right?"  
  
"Giles said the book he has only has an excerpt of the text, not the complete volume. The Watcher's Council would have it, but I don't think you'd want them becoming suspicious when Giles places an order for the book."  
  
"Besides, he doesn't work for them anymore anyway."  
  
"We're keeping all research options open."  
  
"OK."  
  
Aurora looked at her, and then ventured tentatively. "I placed a call to Wesley, though."  
  
"Wesley? Aurora, he can't--"  
  
"I know, I know, I was very non-suspicious. I just asked him if he could help with a text I was looking for. I trust him. He's not like the person he was when he was your Watcher. Besides, he'd have no idea what's going on here, it's too weird."  
  
"Only in Sunnydale," Buffy conceded. She was glad Giles had someone to help him. And, in a sense, she had someone to help her too. "Wesley saved your life." she observed.  
  
"Carried my lifeless body in his arms, and pretended he was my husband at the hospital so he could demand a blood transfusion." Aurora said, almost wistfully. "Him and Cordelia, I owe them so much."  
  
"That's good to hear, I mean, that you have people you trust with your life. They didn't seem the types when they were here."  
  
"A lot's happened."  
  
"I noticed." Buffy checked her watch, and remembered that she wanted to be home before Dawn got to bed. "I think we've struck enough fear in the hearts of the undead. Call it a night?"  
  
====  
  
She was gushing too much. But it was true, and she didn't want to have to hide it.  
  
Apparently it gave Buffy some kind of comfort that she would rather be in LA. The timing of her appearance in Sunnydale made Buffy suspicious, that maybe she was after Dawn too. Although Aurora didn't know if she could go as far as protect this mysterious Key thing. The rate she was going on these patrols, she would be in bandages by the end of the week.  
  
She also had to consider getting a day job. The calls to Cordelia and LA were seriously bankrupting her.  
  
The vampire came at her from behind, and the buzz from her powers had already dissipated. Apparently the vampire didn't want to harm her, just shake her up, so when she was pinned to the wall by her shoulders she could only wriggle underneath his steely grasp.  
  
It was him, the Italian guy.  
  
He had held her up, and she was off her feet, so her face was level with his as he sneered at her.  
  
"You don't know what you're doing," he said.  
  
OK, who said vampires didn't breathe? What else would the stench coming out from his mouth be?  
  
"What?" was the only thing she could get out.  
  
"Silly child. You must realize your part in the circle. You are after the girl too."  
  
  
TO BE CONTINUED 


	3. You Deserve Nothing

Disclaimers in Chapter 1  
  
Send feedback please to slayerbelle@go.com  
  
  
  
The Abnormality of Free Will  
  
by Slayerbelle  
  
  
  
  
Chapter 3  
"You Deserve Nothing"  
  
  
  
"What?" Aurora gasped, trying to get as far away from him as the wall would allow. "What girl?"  
  
"The Key," he said, shaking her, and the motion knocked her head painfully against the concrete several times. "You realize the longer we delay, the closer the end gets."  
  
"Let go of me!" Aurora demanded. "There is no we. I don't know what you're talking about."  
  
He stared at her, glassy eyes boring into hers. She had her breath in her throat, and didn't speak.  
  
He shook his head. "Denying it does nothing but hasten the end."  
  
Aurora coughed, finding her voice again. "You think I'm here for the girl. I'm not."  
  
"If you don't fulfill your destiny, then I will finish mine."  
  
"My destiny? What are you...?"   
  
Aurora felt a pain in her gut, and it wasn't an attack, but an insight. It became clearer, all of a sudden. She jerked under his grip in protest. "That's not what the vision said."  
  
"I fulfill my destiny in the event of your failure, child."  
  
"What destiny are you talking about?"  
  
"The Key belongs to no one. If you do not do your part in executing that truth, I lay claim to it."  
  
"Who are you?"  
  
"My name is Raphael. We shall meet again, Aurora Halley."  
  
He dropped her to the ground and disappeared into the night.  
  
====  
  
"He literally disappeared. I mean, poof. Gone."  
  
Giles handed her an ice pack, which she thankfully placed on her upper arm. He opened a bookmarked section of the old text he had been going over. "You said his name was Raphael."  
  
"Yes. Is that enough? You won't be finding three of them with that name in the order of the monks, right?"  
  
"I didn't find his name at all," Giles admitted. "But I did find documentation about a split in the order. Occurred over a hundred and fifty years ago. Factions within the order disagreed about what to do with the Key. They were protecting it all this time, but a small rogue group decided that the better thing to do was to channel the power of the Key for themselves."  
  
"That's bad, isn't it?"  
  
"Well yes, but they did claim that this was a more practical use of the Key, rather than how it was originally intended. The group delved into darker magics in order to steal the Key, but were thwarted, and their numbers dwindled over the years. Apparently, it was suspected that a few took steps to make themselves immortal, so they could be able to continue the attempt to steal the Key."  
  
Aurora lifted her sleeve and winced at the pink mark left behind by Raphael's grip. "Vamp yourself, get the extra strength as well. Our Raphael seems a likely rogue monk then. He wants Dawn. Whatever her power is, he wants it for himself."  
  
Giles leaned back against his chair, started cleaning his glasses. "This brings up something of great importance, Aurora."  
  
"We need to up Dawn's protection?"  
  
"We have to tell Buffy that there isn't just one entity out to get Dawn. Apparently there are many, and we don't know who they are."  
  
"That's not going to reassure her," Aurora said.  
  
"She needs the truth, Aurora, not our reassurance. And we'd better stop referring to the Key as, well, her name, because we don't know who can be listening." He paused to check his watch. "It's very late."  
  
"Two am."  
  
"You'd better rest."  
  
"Well, we had important work to do."  
  
"You have to lay off the patrolling, Aurora. You're not built for this. Buffy is."  
  
Aurora sighed. "We already had this conversation, Mr. Giles."  
  
"Well you could at least..." He lost the lecture train of thought. And got on another. "Would you like me to teach you how to fight?"  
  
She was surprised at the suggestion. "What?"  
  
"You might as well learn how to do it right."  
  
Aurora let the moment hang in the air, and she was remembering Giles as he was in the three years she had stayed in Sunnydale. More than anything he was a mentor, and that was what made him a great Watcher. He was probably feeling that Buffy had outgrown him. She needed what he was offering, but he needed it as well.  
  
She nodded. "Of course. Can we start after I've healed?"  
  
He let her sleep on the small cot in the training room, because he wasn't going to let her walk back to the motel alone and injured. Aurora wrapped herself in the blanket and slept, dreamless, visionless.   
  
====  
  
It was deep in the night when Dawn stirred, and felt something heavy on her bed.  
  
She instinctively gasped, because a Slayer's sister learned over the years that things that go bump in the night actually did end up grabbing you in your bed as you slept, but not so this time. The heavy thing was Buffy, she was curled up in a ball, still in her slaying outfit, asleep on the corner of Dawn's bed.  
  
Her sister's gasp startled the Slayer awake as well, and soon enough they were both sitting up and giving each other the look of sisterly annoyance.  
  
"What are you doing here?" Dawn hissed, not wanting to wake up their mom.  
  
"Shut up! You're waking up the whole house," Buffy hissed back, yawning as she tugged the elastic holding up her hair.  
  
Dawn took in this scene and did shut up. The last time Buffy was sweet to her as a sister was, well... too long ago. It was like Dawn hit an age and was suddenly not worth Buffy's time, and it had been like that for years. She mostly stayed out of Buffy's way, except when she thought she saw signs of... maybe...   
  
But things were never going to go back the way they were.  
  
Like now. Buffy had obviously come from slaying, and went directly to her room. And snuggled up next to her, not even bothering to change her clothes.  
  
"Why do you stink?" she said.  
  
She got the Evil Eye. "I thought you were shutting up, Dawn."   
  
"Oh come on. You've got your own bed. And you're here stinking up mine."  
  
"Well excuse me, the evil undead don't really bother with the Chanel number five, you know."  
  
Sisterly love.  
  
Buffy shook out some dirt off her hair. "How's mom?"  
  
"She went to bed early, but she's OK. Not a headache tonight, which is probably a record."  
  
"And you? Homework and whatever it is that you do fine?"  
  
"Why are you checking up on me?"  
  
Buffy frowned defensively. "I'm not checking up on you. I was just making conversation."  
  
"At two am you ask me about my homework."  
  
"I just want to know about you is all."  
  
Maybe Buffy really was trying. Dawn had to give her credit.  
  
"At least take off your jacket," she said. "I'm going to bed. And don't snore."  
  
Buffy smiled softly. "I won't bother you, I promise."  
  
====  
  
An almost normal night.  
  
Snuggled next to Riley, Buffy listened to him breathe and realized she could actually go to sleep. Aurora was staying at home on Dawn patrol (Joyce was away on business again). Giles had reported to her a boatload of new research. She hadn't seen the permed blond bitch in weeks.   
  
So now, date with the boyfriend. It was comforting, settling into something that seemed so normal. Because she was grasping now, treasuring what parts of her life didn't give her pain. Even school was starting to feel like a sanctuary, despite the literature exam she had looming on the horizon.  
  
She knew Riley wanted to be more involved in her slaying. He didn't know about the whole trouble with Dawn, and she didn't plan to tell him. This was her refuge, and he might not understand that, might even get offended by it. It wasn't that she didn't think he was strong.  
  
Buffy just didn't want any more battle scars.  
  
Angel's bite on her neck, an unfortunate reminder of a relationship that intertwined her dual lives as Slayer and woman. Because the woman wanted to thrive, and the Slayer lived to destroy.   
  
It occurred to her that Aurora had the same scar.  
  
That Angel did get around, damn him.  
  
Buffy held on to Riley's arm and closed her eyes.  
  
====  
  
Inside the red room with no windows or doors, she heard the music playing again.  
  
Aurora felt the cold metal of the silver knife in her hand. Buffy in front of her, Raphael to her left, Dawn to her right. They were all looking at her with wide, expectant eyes.  
  
A voice in her head.  
  
"The choice is yours to make."  
  
"It's not fair that I have the knife," Aurora said, aloud, to the voice in her head.  
  
"But it's yours to make. Break the circle and let it be done."  
  
"I thought I was already told what should be done."  
  
"Break the circle and let it be done."  
  
Before she realized it, Aurora braced the knife and plunged it into Dawn's stomach. The girl gasped but did not scream, the look of horror frozen on her face as she looked down at her body in disbelief. Blood flowed from her wound, thick and glowing, staining the front of her dress, flowing to the floor.   
  
Aurora stepped back. Dawn was looking at her, and all she could see was the pain of betrayal in her eyes. She looked to her left. Raphael was gone.   
  
Buffy blinked.  
  
====  
  
She was jolted awake. "What the hell was that?" she hissed.  
  
Her only answer was Riley's even breathing.  
  
Buffy hadn't even realized she had dozed off, but what else could that have been? She tried to close her eyes again, but a cold sweat had formed around her neck and she hated that. It was like she was bothered by a silly dream.   
  
That was it. Silly. Her fear of failing to protect Dawn, and all that nonsense.   
  
Or not.  
  
In a heartbeat she was on her feet, and on the phone.  
  
====  
  
"Did you have a vision, Aurora?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"You tell me. I saw it."  
  
"You saw it."  
  
"The one you had now. You stuck that thing -- you killed Dawn. Was that a vision?"  
  
Hesitation. "Yes, Buffy."  
  
"You don't -- you don't have to do it. You don't -- Aurora, you can't."  
  
"I do what I'm told, Buffy. It's just the way it is."  
  
"You're not telling me you're in my home now talking to me and you're actually going to --"  
  
====  
  
She might have left the phone on the floor, but Riley would just have to find it in the morning.  
  
Buffy was running now, running without her coat on in the cold autumn night. Aurora couldn't possibly. She couldn't possibly lift a finger to hurt Dawn. Not when she knew Buffy wouldn't let her. Not when --  
  
*Not when I invited her into my own home.*  
  
*Screw it. Screw intuition. I've lost it, I can't have it back, I can't trust anything, anyone, can't possibly make choices.*  
  
Apparently she didn't only make bad choices, she was incapable of learning from them. Like inviting a stranger into a plan not even her best friends or lover knew about. Like asking a stranger to do what she was supposed to be doing -- protecting her sister.  
  
Something blurred her vision as she ran, and she realized she was crying. Eyes filling with tears that didn't stream down her cheeks fast enough. This was her fault, always was, and she was going to fix it. So Aurora had, what, half an hour's head start actually being in her home where the kitchen had all sorts of knives, but she was going to fix it.  
  
Aurora couldn't possibly do what that vision said. No one would do that to an innocent girl.  
  
Around the block, and she saw her house was in total darkness. She wasn't comforted. She made it to the front door, and found that it was locked. Of course. With the lack of discipline much associated with being Buffy, and knowing she probably left her house key in the pocket of her coat back at Riley's, she kicked down the door, breaking it at its lock. It swung back into a dark house.  
  
"Dawn!" Buffy called. The silence troubled her. She yelled to fill it. "Dawn!" She ran up the stairs, to the bedroom, and saw that it was empty. The sheets had been rumpled, been slept on very recently, but was empty.  
  
Not good.  
  
Buffy did a quick check of the bathroom before stepping out into the hall. "Dawn!" she yelled again, distressed that it was echoing around the house. She didn't smell blood, there didn't seem to be signs of a struggle. She made her way up the corridor to check the other rooms of the house. Her room was empty, the bed still made.   
  
The door to her mom's room was closed. Buffy grabbed the doorknob to check on it, and it wouldn't budge. She didn't remember it being locked.   
  
She banged on it. "Dawn! Aurora! Open up!" Her hand came down hard on the wood repeatedly, but it still wouldn't budge. She braced herself again, ready to kick down the door if she had to, when it suddenly opened and a hand pulled her inside.  
  
Aurora threw her inside the room.  
  
"Shut up, Buffy!" she hissed as she bolted the door.  
  
"Where's Dawn?"  
  
"Ssh!" Aurora lifted a finger, her voice barely above a whisper. "Dawn's fine." She pointed in the direction of Joyce Summers' bathroom, door closed and locked. "But he's here."  
  
"Who?"  
  
"Raphael."  
  
"Who?"  
  
"The Italian vampire. He had a spell to get into your home, I tried to counteract it like last time but he had another... he's inside now."  
  
Now that Buffy could see that Aurora wasn't running after Dawn with a knife, her thoughts took a second to adjust. "The Italian vampire is here. Inside my house."  
  
Aurora was looking around wild-eyed, cautious, still hissing. "Yes. He got in through the kitchen door. We hid in here until --"  
  
At this point Joyce's bedroom door blew right out of its hinges. Buffy was able to jump out of the way, but Aurora was not so lucky. The flying block of wood hit her squarely on the side and threw her across the room.   
  
Raphael stood at the doorway.  
  
"I didn't invite you in," Buffy said.   
  
He sneered at her. "What you keep here is mine."  
  
"I can't believe you ruined my mom's door."   
  
She jumped at him, but not enough to knock him off his feet. He didn't attack her, even, there was just this serenity with which he fought her, threw punches and blocked them...  
  
He used to be a monk. A man of God.  
  
Who now wanted to kill her sister.  
  
Buffy threw her fist at him and marveled at the strength with which she attacked. She hated this, hated having to fear for the lives of the ones closest to her. It never seemed to end... one death after another, one demon after another...  
  
Like now, who was she fighting now? One of possibly many forces out to get Dawn. Defeating him would not be the end of it. It would just be the beginning of a really long road.  
  
Unless he wins, and of course it will be the end.  
  
He was able to grab her by the neck and bang her head against the wall. Buffy gasped, grabbed a fistful of his coat and swung herself into a more advantageous position with it. She balled her hand into a fist and struck, but he caught it.  
  
Caught her fist, lifted her up with her arms, and started walking.  
  
"What, are you done?" Buffy taunted, trying to remember if she had a stake on her person at all. No, she had none.  
  
Again, that strange serenity. He almost smiled at her as he lifted her, walked down the hallway. Buffy didn't have to crane her neck to see where he was taking her. She struggled, trying not to look like she was panicking. But she didn't have a weapon, and she wasn't going to overwhelm him with her strength.  
  
He carried her over to the stairs.  
  
Just as he let her go, she hooked her arm around around his neck and pulled.   
  
"Not without you, honey," she said. On the strength of his own momentum they tumbled down the staircase together. Buffy gasped at each fall, reaching out to grab the banister before she rolled all the way down, but her fingers were slippery, they wouldn't hold. Fingernails scraped against wood, stairs poked her ribs as she rolled down, gravity and the weight of the vampire dragging her.  
  
Buffy hit the floor with a hard thud, pain shooting up her side. When she pushed herself upright, she saw that she was alone on the floor.  
  
She must have been out for a second, maybe more.  
  
Only the beginning, she groaned, as she lifted herself up and started running up the stairs. Still unarmed, but she'd worry about that later. She heard sounds of a scuffle, coming from her mom's bedroom, and she was there in a flash.  
  
The vampire was straddling Aurora, and she was threatening his unlife with what seemed like a piece of Joyce Summers' bed. Buffy hesitated. The vampire had his hands around the girl's neck; she was coughing. The Slayer took a step forward, but Aurora lifted a hand and gestured her to stop.  
  
Buffy could see what she was doing.  
  
Aurora coughed again, coughed more laboriously as the air left her reach. And then, there it was. Aurora's eyes widened as something inside her -- that power again -- radiated from inside her, called upon by the threat to her life. The vampire felt it, and he paused.  
  
Aurora's fist tightened against her weapon. "Yes, that's right," she said spitefully, aiming for the heart with renewed strength. Raphael dusted with not a scream, no fanfare.  
  
The two girls were silent for a second. Buffy didn't help her up.  
  
Aurora cleared her throat. "It had to have been me," she said. "I had to kill him."  
  
Maybe it was because the danger was over, but Buffy's body began to ache. "Where's Dawn?" she demanded.  
  
"Still in there. She's fine."  
  
The Slayer lowered her voice. "You were supposed to kill her?"  
  
Aurora shook her head. "But I didn't."  
  
"But you were supposed to kill her."  
  
"Yes. There was another vision, one you didn't see. That's what happened tonight."  
  
She was so tired of this. Just so tired. She dropped to the floor, finding the hard wood not as comfortable, but at least she didn't have to stand. "Aurora, I know you helped today, and thank you. But I can't allow you to do this anymore."  
  
So there they both were now, sitting exhausted on the floor of her mother's ruined bedroom. Aurora was too tired to argue, but she stirred. "What--?"  
  
"I can't allow you near Dawn again."  
  
"Dawn is not in danger from me, Buffy."  
  
"I don't believe that." Buffy said softly. "I appreciate your help, what you've been doing for Giles. But you're not to approach Dawn alone ever again."  
  
Buffy waited for Aurora to pick herself up and walk out. She would call Giles, make sure Aurora got medical help. The girl was sure to clock a few more broken ribs than Buffy did. But, unfortunately, that was not her concern. Of course Dawn would be in danger from Aurora. Aurora would be able to justify Dawn's death with righteous cause.  
  
She heard the downstairs door swing shut. Slowly, she crawled to her mother's bathroom and knocked on the door. "Dawnie?" she said. "Open up, it's OK."  
  
====  
  
If she had been smarter, she would have gotten a job at Caritas, and wouldn't have had to leave LA. Of course, the last time she was there, her vengeful relatives broke every bit of glass in the room, so maybe Lorne wouldn't be so kind as to let her tend the bar.  
  
The Bronze, however, was a different matter.  
  
She was learning how to mix drinks on the spot, but they didn't care. Apparently the mortality rate kept unemployment down and establishments were just happy to hire someone who was still breathing.   
  
Aurora wiped the counter for the nth time and sighed. But she shouldn't complain. The job provided her the means to stay there. Giles was only too happy to let her stay, despite the vision. He wanted her help with the research, and he still hadn't given up on using her magic to channel it into something useful. She almost refused his offer, because she couldn't afford to stay even in the ratty motel. He had asked her to rent out his guest room instead, but couldn't offer her a job at the Magic Box. (Anya pretty much had that place down.)  
  
So, The Bronze. And here her life in Sunnydale begins anew.  
  
"Root beer," Buffy said, sliding into a barstool right in front of her.  
  
"Hey," Aurora said.  
  
"I hear you're rooming with Giles," she said.  
  
Aurora cleared her throat. Buffy's reaction to her was harder and harder to judge in the days after the incident at her home. The only thing she could determine was that it was cold. Buffy was making an effort to be on speaking terms because of Giles, but Aurora got the feeling Buffy was watching her. If she would make a move.  
  
Damn it, she didn't like not being trusted. Of course she wouldn't kill Dawn.  
  
*Unless I had to.*  
  
Buffy was probably right.  
  
Aurora brought the girl a root beer. "Well, paying him to at least," she said. "Everything's fine?"  
  
Buffy nodded. "Yes, everything's fine. You talked to Cordelia recently?"  
  
"I'm not going to tell her, Buffy."  
  
"I didn't mean that."  
  
"Then never mind."  
  
Buffy sipped her drink. "OK then. See you around."  
  
As she left, Aurora felt the urge to drink. Surely she didn't deserve this. Surely she didn't work so hard all her life...   
  
*And exactly the point. Learn your lesson. You're not to be thanked. You deserve nothing.*  
  
Aurora poured herself a vodka shot and gulped it down quick.  
  
"How about one of those for me too, love?"  
  
She turned. Spike, the vampire. Chipped now, incapable of harming humans, if she got her facts right. Maybe it was the depression, maybe the alcohol, but she lost her grip on her cover for a second, and allowed her face to register recognition. Spike had never seen her when she was in Sunnydale.  
  
Or had he? The same flicker of familiarity passed his face as well.  
  
"Alana?" he said.  
  
Aurora shook her head. "You must be mistaken. But I get that a lot." She poured him a vodka and stayed out of his way the rest of the night.  
  
  
  
  
THE END. 


End file.
